Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Wild Mushroom Walk

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This past weekend we decided go for a morning walk along the popular Windham Rail Trail in Windham, New Hampshire, so named because it was originally carved out to accommodate a train route. We only walked for a couple of miles but were amazed to find so many wild mushrooms. While it's not uncommon to see lots of them this time of year, especially since this past August had been so wet, I'd never seen so many different varieties in one place before. Unfortunately, none of them looked remotely edible and I'm sure there were a few that were at least mildly toxic. Still, they were all beautiful in their own unique way.

I know next to nothing about wild mushrooms but have always wanted to join a mushroom hunting club. Out of all of the mushrooms we spotted this past weekend, the only ones I recognized immediately were the Jack-O'-Lanterns (Third down on the left and second down on the right). We actually found this huge cluster growing around the base of a tree in our friends' front yard. I wish we could have stuck around to see them glow in the dark.

Anyway, if anyone wants to offer a guess as to what some of these wild mushrooms might be, please do!

7 comments:

  1. I have followed your blog since you were about to move into new place and I love it. You def have a green thumb. Love all the photos and your hardwork you put into gardening. I have went onto a mushroom hunting trip and collected lots of slippy jack and it tasted heavenly. Hope you will have a chance to cook some of the wild mushroom soon. Cheers. Ha

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  2. The good old mushroom mosaic :-)

    Wow, Thomas. I posted the ones clustering around the tree base on a forager's group on Facebook. It is an interesting resource.

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/184173308292665/

    I'm also very interested in the upside down one with orange gills - it looks quite like a Lactarius/milk cap. It's useful to a take knife when you go, to cut and then photograph the stems which may reveal ID'able traits, and to see whether the flesh stains or drips, also good clues.

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  3. Rats! Just read your post properly. Jack o' Lanterns...Sorry...

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  4. Those are all Shitake.

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  5. Beautiful variety of mushrooms! It's amazing the variety of fungi there are and how showy they are.

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  6. Its so good to most varieties of the mushroom into the wild they would to carriage to the atmosphere and move some times.

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  7. From the top left side - green russula - some people can get diarhea from it but it's considered edible; below it is red russula - not edible. Not sure what's next to it as I don't see front. below orange is jack o'lanter - not eidlbe. next to it is also not edible. one level down are also not edibles. Bright yellow one is very poisonous but next to it is from rusula family also not edible. below again is puffballs - only edible when very young and white inside. once they start turning dark inside they become poisonous. next to it is galerina - very poisonous. below old puffballs (they have already openings for spores on top) are actually young puffballs and those are edible. on the right is not very pretty bollete variety called "old man of the woods" - edible but not tasty. Can't see the details ont he bronw on below but next to it blue one - very poisonous. Orange under it and redish one are also not edible. then afterwards looks like you have cilius but i'd have to see underneath to be sure. that one is actually edible. Another red russula next to it - not edible.
    some tree shelfs on the left with the lowest one some people dry and use for herbal teas (i hate taste though). Another green russula that's not poisonous but not tasty. the one on the very bottom right is lactarius volemus - orange cup and white gills. if you break part of it you'll see white milk and it smells slightly fishy - very good edible. Hope this helps.

    you can also check out this site: http://www.morelmushroomhunting.com/species_list.htm

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